Chapter Text
Kokichi closes his eyes as the press starts up. He knows it would be only a few seconds, but his racing mind made it feel much longer. He can't help but think of Gonta, Miu, and Shumai. Gonta hadn't deserved what Kokichi had done to him, especially since he's pretty sure that the 'secret of the outside world' is faker than Miu's tits.
Kokichi felt the cold metal touch his bare skin a split second before agonizing pain ripped through his body, he would've screamed if his vocal cords weren't pancakes. His mouth too, and lungs. His whole body, actually.
Of course, he soon realized that he was screaming, but it sounded off. Kokichi knows what his voice sounds like, especially screaming, and this is not it. The voice is too echoey and soft, not to mention it hadn't stopped in far too long, the person was sure to pass out due to lack of oxygen.
Kokichi shuts his mouth, and opens his eyes despite the fact that both of these things are supposed to be crushed. The first thing he sees is a whole lot of pink. Pink? He tries to lean forward, but then it changes to a sea of a weird grey metal color. Almost like he's… inside the hydraulic press?
The next thing he notices is how incredibly light he feels, like gravity let go of him. He leans back down and moves along the pink until it opens into air.
Oh.
That's blood.
Gross.
Wait.
That's his blood!
Kokichi whips his head around quickly finding Kaito. He's cutting the lines to the press, just like he was told. Good, but that doesn't answer any of his questions. Kokichi moves a bit, orientating himself in a way that looks like he's standing, but is probably a millimeter over or inside the floor.
In his blood. Absolutely disgusting, but not important at the moment. Kokichi walks around, exploring for answers as Kaito keeps working behind him.
He stops. He's walking around, invisible and incorporeal, with Kaito nearby. Kaito has a crippling fear of ghosts. Kokichi is now, most likely, a ghost. He doesn't fight the laugh bubbling up his throat at the thought.
The sound of the door opening startles him out of the unending laugh fit. Kaito is gone, but now the remaining four are here. And also, a fuckton of ghosts. All their dead classmates are floating around like nats.
They all look devastated, though it makes sense as all evidence points to Pancake Kaito. If he did it right, that is. Kokichi can't help but wonder if they would look that sad if they had found his body, like his prank after Tenko's death. For now though, he just thanks his lucky stars that his ghost body is hidden so none of the ghosts can see him.
Kokichi watches as they search around, ghosts having long ago picked the people they mainly follow around. It's of zero surprise that he sees Kaede following Shuichi around. It's a bit surprising to see Rantaro happily chatting with her and sticking his head in the toilet when Shuichi shows interest in it.
The ghosts, despite being unable to communicate with the survivors, are investigating with them. Makes one wonder, why was no one in the hanger?
Kokichi stays hidden and watches as they discover all the evidence that the space idiot left behind on purpose. Now knowing that his dead classmates are investigating as well, which raises questions, he's going to hide with Kaito in the Exisal.
Why would the dead investigate if they can't help? The things they figure out and say probably leave some sort of imprint on the living. How would that work? Subtle manipulation? If that's true, did they use it on him? When? Kokichi can't think of a time he did something so heavily influenced by one or more of his classmates.
Though, him giving them the electo-hammers and bombs so they could figure out the mystery could potentially count. Even then, it wasn't like they would believe him if he told them. If he didn't have this whole mastermind plan, he probably would've switched to saying 'it's a joke!' instead of 'it's a lie!' but that's wholly speculation.
I got off topic .
That thought shakes him out of his head, and he quickly peeks around, seeing that no one has found him. In fact, everyone's gone?
Ding dong, bing bong!
Oh. They went to search elsewhere and now it's time for the classtrial. That makes sense actually. Kokichi jumps as the Exisal starts moving. He quickly goes up and joins Kaito in the cockpit. Of course, this won't last very long as Kaito has to switch between himself and Kokichi for it to work, and the Exisal is pretty fast.
Unless Kokichi can choose not to go through it, so he gets tugged along instead of left behind. He quickly tests it out on the wall, and the test proves successful, thankfully. He's pretty new to this whole ghost thing and doesn't know if he can tire out from moving too much.
…
Do ghosts need sleep? Can they sleep? Hopefully, or he'll be very bored, very quickly.
Kokichi continues pondering what ghost life is like, as metal on his back tugs him along with Kaito.
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Kokichi is honestly surprised that none of the ghosts are trying to peek inside the Exisal. They must be curious considering there's no new ghost to be found. Of course he can't really focus long enough to think when he keeps being tugged around at the speed of light slow the fuck down Kaito, holy shit .
Yeah he's having a great time, if he had a stomach, it would be empty and on the floor of the Exisal.
While Kokichi tries not to lose his grip on the wall, the others argue outside. He can hear the pieces of conversation that others can't, such as Kirumi saying that it's possible no one died, as they never found a ghost. It would be kinda cramped, but with Kokichi's small size, he and Kaito could potentially fit together.
Kokichi starts silently cursing himself because fuck that would've been a better plan! An unnecessary classtrial plus the fact that he couldn't execute the spotless for getting it wrong, like he might if things go south in this situation, means it's obviously better. Of course, only drinking half the bottle might not have gotten all the poison out so they could've both died from lingering traces of the pois-
"Cuz I like you~!"
Kaito what the fuck. I'm too gay for that. Absolutely disgusting, why did you do that. Fukin straight boy. If you're going to hit on someone in my voice, it's gonna have to be Shumai! Not Kiiboy, as that wouldn't fit the act and not Maki. You can hit on Maki as yourself, you pining dumbass. Why, of all people, did you pick Himiko?
Oh yeah. He's stupid and oblivious. He doesn't know.
While Kokichi is lost in his thoughts, the classtrial continues, as it always does.
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"It's you, Kaito Momota, The Ultimate Astronaut!" Shuichi declares it, pointing like usual. The ghosts all look vaguely surprised at the outcome, if the Exisal's screen is accurate. Kaito pops open the top and jumps out with surprising dexterity. Kokichi pops out the side and lays on the floor, because that was far too fast and he needs a break.
He tunes out everything until a hand touches his arm. He jumps upright, coming face-to-chest with Kaede. He looks up to meet her eyes and backs up, not wanting to be so close.
"Kokichi, is everything Kaito said true?"
His first instinct is to lie and be snarky but… it's not like it matters anymore.
"I wasn't listening. What'd he say?"
She blinks at the normal reply, a small smile slowly stretching across her face. "It was all an act, you were just trying to end the game, right? Everything was fake."
"The best liars can lie to everyone, even themselves," he looks away for a moment, contemplating how vulnerable he's ok with being, "Can't lie away your feelings, but you can hide them."
Fuck I'm crying ok that's not what I wanted ABORT MISSION- wait what.
Kokichi's eyes go wide and shocked as arms circle him. His fingers and arms twitch as he tries to figure out what to do. He honestly can't remember the last time he was hugged, but he eventually decides on clutching the back of her sweater and burying his face in her shoulder.
He can hear a few whispers, probably from Tenko, but ignores them. Then, a very distinct voice calls out, gaining all the attention.
"It's… PUNISHMENT TIME!"
Kaede straightens at the words, making Kokichi cling to her like a koala. Tenko's gone quiet as Maki screams. They run after Kaito as he's yanked off to the side. They find themselves in a classroom, Kaito sitting in front of a rocket. Maki gets held back by ghosts and the living alike, one much more productive then the other, as a few go inside the rocket to accompany Kaito. Those few being Gonta, Ryoma, and Rantaro.
Kokichi watches, still clinging to Kaede, as the doors swallow Kaito and the boosters fire up, starting to send him up… before they pull a 180 and send him to the center of the earth.
There's multiple gasps as he vanishes into the floor, Shuichi looking as though he might start crying like Maki, who has been crying for a good ten minutes now. It's silent, save for deep breaths and hushed sobs, as they wait for the spaceship to reappear.
It only takes a few minutes, but it feels much longer. The spaceship crashes back up, spraying rocks everywhere multiple ghosts jump in to try and protect the survivors, but Kiibo beats them to it and Miu visibly flinches as his ahoge breaks off. Shuichi had started reaching out to protect Himiko, but all movement was aborted as the ship opened, revealing a dead, smiling, Kaito Momota, Luminary of the Stars.
They watch as Kaito's ghost slowly fades into view. Kokichi once again blocks out everything, slowly detaching from Kaede as he waits for Kaito.
One sentence manages to break through the fog. "It's going to take a minute." He nods, not caring who said it, and sits in front of the forming ghost. He's not sure how long he took to form, as he was stuck inside the press, but he knows it was a while.
People start leaving, most of the ghosts leaving as well. Miu was floating around Kiiboy's head, wondering what the lack of ahoge effects would be. Kaede left to follow Shuichi, Rantaro as well. Tenko and Angie followed Himiko, Korekiyo trailing them, and the rest just followed the crowd.
Ryoma stayed, but he kept to the shadows. When Kaito finally started moving, he left. Kokichi however, instantly rocketed at Kaito. The tall spaceman nearly fell as Kokichi wrapped around him, but his arms quickly came down to return the hug.
Of course, once he got his barings, he pushed away and started freaking out.
"Ko-Kokichi! But you're-! Wait! I'm!" His rambles continued as he attempted to make sense of the scene in front of him.
"We're ghosts Kaito! What's so hard to understand! Look how dead I am!" Kokichi proceeded to float into the ceiling, pulling Kaito with him as the spaceman panics. Kokichi could feel Kaito's grip get stronger on his arms as they go through the pure rock, which is understandable as, if Kokichi let go now, they would never find each other again and Kaito would probably be lost forever.
They break through and Kokichi quickly flies towards the dorm, Kaito in tow. It's not hard to notice where they're at, ghosts glow surprisingly bright, so he served towards them.
It's pretty nice for a bit, as Kaito gets eased into being a ghost, surrounded by ghosts. They fill in Kokichi and Kaito and everything they've found, noticed, and done, while Kokichi explains his actions while alive.
It's pretty simple, he wanted to trick the mastermind, but they keep telling him to elaborate, so he does. Or, he tries at least. He's interrupted halfway through by a large series of explosions that have him jumping backwards, through a tree. He quickly finds himself hundreds of meters in the air, spinning in circles for the cause.
The answer came in the form of two other flying bodies, Kiibo and Miu. Miu is flying towards him, Kiibo is going around the school, shooting everything. It's almost like he stopped caring for the safety of others, despite having damaged himself for them just a few minutes ago.
"Dickcheese holy fuck! Kiibo's installed guns on himself and now he's trying to level the damn school!"
Kokichi's eyes widen before he grabs her elbow (he doesn't know where those hands have been), and drags Miu down to the others.
They don't get much time to share the news as Kiibo lands as well, and starts talking to Shuichi, but then Monokuma crashes in and suddenly it's a free for all. Kokichi flies after Shumai, as he can suggest things to him and the detective will absolutely go look. Apparently, that's what Angie did to get Shuichi to look below the floorboards.
Shuichi gets caged in, and has to go down the new opening, a staircase in the center of the floor. They go down the long, unfinished hallway, and find a door. Kokichi stops when he sees it because it looks strangely familiar, but he can't quite place it. They go in, and Kokichi instantly points out a book on the floor, which is investigated near immediately.
Maki walks in, and Kokichi follows Shuichi as he uncovers secrets of the school. He's there when they discover MotherKuma, when Shuichi discovers the flashback light-creating-classroom, and when Himiko shows the other entrance to the mastermind's lair.
The entire class is there as the Final Classtrial begins.
The entire class is there as Shuichi ends Danganronpa.
The fully formed spirits of all but the still forming Tsumugi watch as the Surviving Trio walk out.
The spirits watch as
the whole world
suddenly
goes
b l a c k.